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InfoAtoms

How to Remove InfoAtoms from Your Computer

To completely purge InfoAtoms from your computer, you need to delete the Windows registry keys and registry values associated with InfoAtoms. These registry keys and values are respectively listed in the Registry Keys and Registry Values sections on this page.

The Windows registry stores important system information such as system preferences, user settings and installed programs details as well as the information about the applications that are automatically run at start-up. Because of this, spyware, malware and adware often store references to their own files in your Windows registry so that they can automatically launch every time you start up your computer.

To effectively remove InfoAtoms from your Windows registry, you must delete all the registry keys and values associated with InfoAtoms, which are listed in the Registry Keys and Registry Values sections on this page.

IMPORTANT: Because the registry is a core component of your Windows system, it is strongly recommended that you back up the registry before you begin deleting keys and values. For information about backing up the Windows registry, refer to the Registry Editor online help.

To remove the InfoAtoms registry keys and values:

On the Windows Start menu, click Run.

In the Open box, type regedit and click OK. The Registry Editor window opens. This window consists of two panes. The left pane displays folders that represent the registry keys arranged in hierarchical order. The right one lists the registry values of the currently selected registry key.

To delete each registry key listed in the Registry Keys section, do the following:

Locate the key in the left pane of the Registry Editor window by sequentially expanding the folders according to the path indicated in the Registry Keys section. For example, if the path of a registry key is

Select the key name indicated at the end of the path (KeyName1 in the example above).

Right-click the key name and select Delete on the menu.

Click Yes in the Confirm Key Delete dialog box.

To delete each registry value listed in the Registry Values section, do the following:

Display the value in the right pane of the Registry Editor window by sequentially expanding the folders in the left pane according to the path indicated in the Registry Values section and selecting the specified key name. For example, if the path of a registry value is

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\software\FolderA\FolderB\KeyName2,valueC=

sequentially expand the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, software, FolderA and FolderB folders and select the KeyName2 key to display the valueC value in the right pane.

In the right pane, select the value name indicated after a comma at the end of the path (valueC in the example above).

Software that is designed to launch advertisements, frequently pop-up ads, on a user’s computer and/or to redirect search results to promotional Web sites. Adware programs are often built into freeware or shareware programs, where the adware creates an indirect ‘charge’ for using the free program. Sometimes a trojan can silently download an adware program from a Web site and install it onto a user’s machine.

Hacker tools, or Browser Hijackers, can also download an adware program by exploiting a web browser’s vulnerability. Browser Hijackers may tamper with the browser settings, redirect incorrect or incomplete URLs to unwanted Web sites, or change the default home page. They can also re-direct a user’s searches to “pay-to-view” (often pornographic) Web sites.

Typically, many adware programs do not leave any marks of their presence in the system: they are not listed on Start | Programs; they add no icons to the system tray; and they don’t show up on the task list. In addition, adware programs seldom provide an uninstallation procedure, and attempts at manually removing them frequently result in failure of the original carrier program.

Downloading and Installing Freeware or Shareware

Small-charge or free software applications may come bundled with spyware, adware, or programs like InfoAtoms. Sometimes adware is attached to free software to enable the developers to cover the overhead involved in created the software. Spyware frequently piggybacks on free software into your computer to damage it and steal valuable private information.

Using Peer-to-Peer Software

The use of peer-to-peer (P2P) programs or other applications using a shared network exposes your system to the risk of unwittingly downloading infected files, including malicious programs like InfoAtoms.

Visiting Questionable Web Sites

When you visit sites with dubious or objectionable content, trojans-including InfoAtoms, spyware and adware, may well be automatically downloaded and installed onto your computer.